Attenuation of Apoptosis and Oxidative Stress by Endurance Training in the Cerebellum of Diabetic Rats

 Identifying the effective exercise protocol that attenuates the functional and molecular disturbances in different regions of the brain, in particular the cerebellum, can help the proper management of neuropathies in diabetic patients.

 Twenty rats were randomly divided into four groups: (1) Normal control group (CON), (2) normal exercise group (TH), (3) diabetes control group (DC), and (4) diabetes exercise group (TD). Diabetes was induced by i.p injection of a single dose of streptozotocin (50 mg/kg). The endurance training protocol was performed on a treadmill for five days a week for six weeks with moderate intensity. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and the expression or release of apoptotic factors were analyzed based on data from rat cerebellum tissue at the end of the experiments.

 Six weeks of endurance training improved the oxidative defense system by increasing the activities of SOD (from 3.70 ± 0.64 to 6.55 ± 0.56), GPx (from 3.42 ± 0.73 to 4.84 ± 0.62), and catalase (from 1.36 ± 0.23 to 3.59 ± 0.37) and reducing the MDA concentration (from 6.81 ± 1.34 to 4.33 ± 1.03) in the cerebellum of diabetic rats. Increased expression or cytosolic release of apoptotic effectors such as bax, caspase 3, and cytochrome c in the cerebellum of diabetic rats were attenuated following exercise training.

 Our research results showed that six weeks of endurance training may be helpful for the attenuation of neuropathies in diabetic patients by the attenuation of apoptosis and oxidative stress in the cerebellum.